New beginnings can be difficult to navigate. They can seem impossible for us, but there’s hope. Today we’ll talk about someone who faced unimaginable new beginnings and some encouraging reminders we can learn from her story.

The phrase “new beginning” sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Hopeful, exciting, or even a little romantic. It gives me a picture in my mind of a Hallmark movie where everything is simple and straightforward.

But when we’re faced with new beginnings in real life? The phrase rarely holds the same meaning for us. Although depending on the situation or timing, we might have a few of the rosy feelings, we also tend to feel a mixture of anxiety, fear, and trepidation.

There are so many good examples of new beginnings in the Bible, it’s a little hard to choose just one. Almost each one contains some kind of new beginning—Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, even the entire gospel.

But today, Esther seems like a perfect choice.

In case you haven’t read the book recently, here’s a refresher:

The book of Esther takes place after the Israelites were taken into captivity by the Babylonian Empire. By then, another empire was in power: the Persians. In Esther’s day, Persia was ruled by Xerxes (AKA Ahasuerus), and the book of Esther actually begins with him.

He had decided to have an extravagant party to show off his wealth and power to all the officials in his many provinces. Toward the end of the festivities, after he and his guests had imbibed heavily on as much wine as they could drink, he decided to finish the festivities by flaunting his queen and her beauty before the officials.

Xerxes ordered Queen Vashti, who was hosting her own banquet for the women, to come before him and his guests immediately. She refused.

Embarrassed and afraid that Queen Vashti’s actions would start a precedent of disobedience to their husbands among other women, Xerxes chose to make an example of her. So it was decreed that she would never enter the king’s presence or wear the queen’s crown again.

Although I’m sure Xerxes had many women in his harem already, he wanted a new queen to replace Vashti after a while. So all the beautiful young women in the kingdom were brought to the palace to undergo beauty treatments for a year before the king chose one to be his new queen.

Spoiler alert: Esther was his choice.

Her story has a bit of a fairy tale quality to it, don’t you think?

That’s not why I picked it though. On the surface, yes, Esther seems to be a Cinderella story, but when you dig deeper, Esther is more complex than that.

And, if you could ask her how she felt to involuntarily leave her home to either replace the last queen who’d displeased the king or be locked in his harem for the rest of her life, I’m guessing hopeful and excited wouldn’t have been at the top of her list of emotions. Let alone romantic.

Esther was a woman who knew what it was like to face a very hard new beginning. One with seemingly no good options.

In the fairy tales, Esther’s story would have ended with “happily ever after” as the king’s choice, but her life as queen was only another new beginning. One that required continued faith and grace on her part.

Because even as queen, her role wasn’t secure. One wrong move and she could be replaced as quickly as Vashti. Perhaps even killed.

Some time later, Esther learned of an edict, sanctioned by the king and spearheaded by his lead official, to kill every Jewish man, woman, and child throughout the kingdom. Her people’s hope for survival left her with another set of seemingly impossible choices: either die with her people later or most probably die earlier in an effort to save her people.  

Although she was queen, she could not approach the king any time she pleased. She had to wait to be summoned by him. But he had not summoned her in quite some time. She had no way to talk to him, and to approach him would mean her death, unless the king chose to spare her. Yet he had shown no inclination toward mercy in the past.

With the wise counsel of her cousin, who was more of a father to her, she chose to risk her own life. She responded by instructing every Jew in the immediate area to fast and pray with her for three days, and then she approached the king.

Another spoiler alert: The king spared her life.

And he granted her request to spare her people. His earlier edict couldn’t just be changed, but he allowed Esther and her cousin to send another edict to all the provinces, allowing the Israelites to gather and defend themselves.

The Israelites were spared.

Encouraging Reminders of Hope for New Beginnings

I don’t know about you, but although I’ve been overwhelmed by many new beginnings, I’ve never had any on the level that Esther did. But new beginnings are new beginnings, and Esther’s story is a wonderful encouragement to us—no matter how big or small our new beginnings may seem.

#1 – Even when we seem to have no choices, we always choose our response.

I’m sure you’ve heard this. I’ve probably said it several times throughout the years, but it’s one of those things that’s said often because it’s true.

And it’s one of those true things that we need to hear periodically. As smart as we can be sometimes, we need repetition to relearn even the simplest truths.

#2 – God uses even the hard new beginnings for our good and His glory.

One of my favorite things about God is His tendency to use the weak. I love how he takes situations that seem impossible and make them possible.

#3 – Sometimes it’s the hard new beginnings that make the most impact.

One of the reasons I think God loves to use the hard is because His hand is most evident in those situations. We are susceptible to complacency by forgetting to look to Him sometimes. And, when things are good and we’re accomplishing so much, we can find ourselves sinking into prideful thinking, like we accomplished the good in our lives by our own hands. But there’s no mistaking God’s hand in the hard places that seem impossible for us.

#4 – Having new beginnings is never finished for us.

I’m not sure if this just me, but when I was younger, I thought new beginnings were just for young people. New grades. New future. But as I’ve grown, I’ve realized that we’ll always have new beginnings.

This can be discouraging, but it can also be a comforting thought. After all, as children of God, we have the best new beginning to look forward to because as soon as we leave these flawed bodies, we’ll finally face the ultimate new beginning.

#5 – We are not alone.

And the best thing we can do is seek God in prayer. He’s promised to never leave nor forsake us, regardless of the difficult circumstances around us or the mistakes we make. Even in the hardest places, he remains close.

No matter how big or small or hard our new beginnings may be, we can know that God will never leave us, and perhaps, we were made for just such a time.

And if you’re not a child of God, or you don’t know what that means, I encourage you to visit this page. God has a wonderful new beginning for you if you’ll accept it.

Are you facing a new beginning? What helps you face it with faith? Be sure to share in the comments below.

more reading

• Doubting God’s Presence: 6 Sweet Reminders from HISsparrowBlog
• Fear Not: 6 Important Scripture Reminders to Cast Out Fear from HISsparrowBlog
• Why We Gotta Stop Shoulding Ourselves and Others from HISsparrowBlog

I frequently link up with the following: Grace & Truth with Embracing the Unexpected, Tell His Story with Jeanne Takenaka, and Let’s Have Coffee with Joanne Viola.